Director's Blog

Boreal Alberta: 6 hours, 13km and a Coin Laundry

in Director's Blog  by July 17, 2014 0 comments

The SongbirdSOS crew (Daniel Grant, Jason Milligan, and Josh See) arrived at the airport in northern Alberta to film at the Boreal forest. We rented a very large SUV, loaded our camera and sound gear and drove straight to Slave Lake. Away from the city, I realized our SUV was tiny compared to the monster trucks that rule the road in Alberta. Like our shooting in the Netherlands, we were cursed with rain. Since all of our work is outdoors, this makes filming quite tricky. If you listen closely to the sound in the boreal forest scenes in the documentary, you might even hear the drip drip drip of rain.

Boreal

Mourning Warbler

We were heading to Calling Lake, where our Boreal host, Dr. Erin Bayne, keeps a small research cabin. Erin was concerned about the road to Calling Lake. It has been raining for days and the road was very soft and muddy. But we made it into the cabin all right and had a great day filming.  Erin netted an oven-bird for us, as well we documented two of his researchers doing Point Counts. You can see the stats for Boreal songbirds at the Boreal Avian Modelling Project website.

Boreal Oven Bird 4

Calling Lake Alberta

Calling Lake Alberta

However, it was the trip back to Athabasca that Erin was really worried about because if we had any more rain, we risked being stuck at the cabin. Well, it poured. But we had to go. So we packed our gear, loaded the ATV’s and truck, and headed down the road through the depths of the Boreal forest. 

Loading out of CallingLake

Loading out of CallingLake

As Erin suspected, the road was far too soft and the truck sank into the mud. A few kilometers into the journey, we were stuck. Very stuck.  After numerous attempts to free ourselves, we eventually walked. For a camera crew this means we had to walk, carrying our gear (ten very heavy  cases loaded with expensive equipment as well as our personal back-packs) in a kind of convoy. After a few kilometers, we were rescued by ATV’s that shuttled us to a spot where we would eventually be rescued by a relief biology crew – aka Our Heroes!  It took us six hours to travel a mere 13 kilometers. Seven hours later we were wiping ourselves down in the Athabasca Super 8 motel. Good thing they had coin laundry.

Enjoy this one minute cell phone video of three bird biologists and four filmmakers stuck in the mud.

Related posts:

  1. Listening to Boreal Birdsong while filming SongbirdSOS
  2. THE MESSENGER Picture Lock: 120 hours of footage – One year later
  3. The Secret to Filming Wild Birds in Big Cities & “Jungles”
  4. Festival Highlights – American Conservation Film Festival

Listening to Boreal Birdsong while filming SongbirdSOS

in Director's Blog  by July 15, 2014 0 comments

When the SongbirdSOS crew was shooting in Alberta, I was keen to wake up with the birds and document Erin Bayne’s team listening to Boreal birdsong, doing point counts near Calling Lake Alberta. One challenge when you are working at such northern latitudes is that dawn is around 4 am! But to hear the Boreal birdsong was well worth the effort.

Diana Stralberg - point counts in Boreal

cabin at dawn, calling lake alberta

A point count is a field method used to study avian population trends. The data fuels research for many scientists and can be found on the Boreal Avian Modelling Project website. A familiar favourite for many people (for me this songbird is synonymous with forest)  is the white-throated sparrow. Eighty-five percent of the population of white-throated sparrows breed in the Boreal. Sadly, these songsters are also in decline, as their population has dropped by thirty percent since 1966.

white-throated sparrow

Below is a sample recording of Boreal birdsong. Listen for the Tennessee Warbler, Hermit Thrush, Fox Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow and Dark-eyed Junco.

Another great resource for Boreal birds and how you can help is the Boreal Songbird Initiative.

 

Songbird photos by Joshua See.

Related posts:

  1. Boreal Alberta: 6 hours, 13km and a Coin Laundry
  2. Birdsong: The Forest Bird in Wagners’ Siegfried
  3. House Sparrows
  4. The (almost) Impossible Task of Filming Songbirds in Flight

Shooting in Costa Rica: Songbirds and live Fences

in Director's Blog  by June 19, 2014 0 comments

Shoot Day: Feb 23, 2014

Here’s Alejandra Martinez-Salinas with Jacques Avelino near CATIE , standing beside a newly planted “live fence.  A live fence is basically a double row of trees (different species) that line a crop field. It may seem like a tiny step (and it ain’t no rainforest) but it is a miracle to be able to convince a poor local farmer to give up an 8 feet strip of valuable crop from their already small farming plot for trees. The live fence can provide a corridor for animals and link forest patches. One benefit is more birds, and more birds equals more natural pest control, which is a big step in the right direction for sustainable agriculture – and for songbirds.

Related posts:

  1. Songbirds in Costa Rica: The Proyecto Monitoreo de Aves (PMA)
  2. Songbird Monitoring in Costa Rica with Alejandra Martinez-Salinas
  3. Touring Costa Rica to film the birds
  4. The (almost) Impossible Task of Filming Songbirds in Flight

Songbirds in Costa Rica: The Proyecto Monitoreo de Aves (PMA)

in Director's Blog  by June 19, 2014 0 comments

Shoot Day: February 22, 2014 I had never been to Costa Rica, so filming there was amazing experience. After driving for hours on the single traffic-choked road that winds from San Jose we finally arrived at CATIE. CATIE is a Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre, located near Turrialba in Costa Rica. Here Alejandra Martinez-Salinas works both on research with the number one coffee pest – the Coffee Beetle Borer as well as manages the The Proyecto Monitoreo de Aves (PMA) .

Alejandra: “When I started working with songbirds I fell in love with the migrants because they were so tiny and fragile but also so strong and determined — I mean they really want to get somewhere and they usually get there! They move through so many different countries, it’s special just to hold an animal that’s been travelling so much, that’s been to so many different places …”

On our first morning of shooting we followed Alejandra and her associate Almilkar through their early morning songbird monitoring routine. At CATIE they monitor songbirds in different agricultural uses like abandoned coffee and cacao plantations. When we were filming they banded a few neo tropical migrants including a juvenile indigo bunting and a mourning warbler. The mourning warbler was a repeat band – it had already made the journey to North America and back and was re-captured one year later, near the exact same spot as the previous year. Even though I knew about this, to experience it was truly remarkable.

Related posts:

  1. Touring Costa Rica to film the birds
  2. Songbird Monitoring in Costa Rica with Alejandra Martinez-Salinas
  3. Shooting in Costa Rica: Songbirds and live Fences
  4. A Coffee Primer for Birds & People

Rain Rain Rain

in Director's Blog  by March 30, 2014 0 comments

Filmmakers Blog, May 29, 2013

Our first major shoot for SongbirdSOS was in the Netherlands and Turkey. It rained almost every day, all the time, everywhere we went.  On this day in the Aras River valley, we were not soaking wet, but the rain water had run down the mountains, trickled into streams that poured into the valley. In order to reach the bird banding site in Aras where we were filming, we had to cross streams that had grown from mere trickles to rushing rivers.  We had to carry, piece by piece, all of our precious camera equipment across the stream. The rocks were slippery and the tug of the water was strong. It was quite treacherous, and we had to cross at least six times during our short stay.  Luckily, our crossings were successful with very wet feet but amazing footage to show for it.

Related posts:

  1. Mike the ringer
  2. Amar Arhab
  3. The Messenger’s Cagan Şekercioğlu’s Environmental Request while Accepting a Prestigious Award
  4. The Secret to Filming Wild Birds in Big Cities & “Jungles”